It causes 6 sec vulnerability. It's a totally different approach to condition builds. Water has a nice trait that increases damage when an opponent is vulnerable. Also one could take the trait that gives 2% dps for each boon on you and its relatively easy to get around 5 boons on you.

That naturally combo's well with Arcana and that tree also provides some nice traits that give u fast boons and with extended boon duration and faster swapping you can spam boons and get good damage. At least in theory. How would a trait spread for this look like?

I'm thinking 30 Water, 30 Arcana and then im lost for the remaining 10 points. Would also be possible to go with 20 Arcana and get another tree to 20. Not sure on this yet.

Also, for gear, should I be stacking power? Focus on might? Focus on crit?
Water gives alot of extra HP but I really don't like having zero extra toughness.

Vapor Blades is really good. But don't get caught up with vulnerability. it is a 1% increase in damage- but that is not sexy when you are soloing because of opportunity cost. The damage of the skill isn't great and stacking vuln with the build you put together (even with Piercing Shards) probably won't get you better DPS than what other builds are floating around this forums combined with attunement dancing.

The real beauty of the skill is in group play. Then vulnerability really shines since your other four team mates can herd mobs together, vapor blades will hit said mobs zillons of times, you'll stack crazy vulnerability, and then you- and your teammates will get the benefit of vuln. I used this skill almost exclusively while leveling to 80.

Vapor Blades is really good. But don't get caught up with vulnerability. it is a 1% increase in damage- but that is not sexy when you are soloing because of opportunity cost. The damage of the skill isn't great and stacking vuln with the build you put together (even with Piercing Shards) probably won't get you better DPS than what other builds are floating around this forums combined with attunement dancing.

The real beauty of the skill is in group play. Then vulnerability really shines since your other four team mates can herd mobs together, vapor blades will hit said mobs zillons of times, you'll stack crazy vulnerability, and then you- and your teammates will get the benefit of vuln. I used this skill almost exclusively while leveling to 80.

This is spot on. Water dps is awful in solo play, but amazing in group play. I can get to 20 stacks on multiple foes really easy. The downside is your damage is subpar. And if you switch attunements alot your Stacks will fall off quickly. Plus to really hammer it home, all of your best support talents are in water from on demand conditon removal to crazy amounts of regen skills, that speccing to increase your damage in water is so tough to do.

I love vapor blade, but 1 double VB is still less than a single Air whip hit even at 20 stacks of Vulnerability. The boon talent is amazing if if you spec glyphs to grant you boons, or Aura's to grant you fury and swiftness. You can keep up 4 to 5 boons.

The best I could do with a water damage build is this.

Water DPS- Though you could swap Zephyr's Boon out for Quick Glyphs for more Glyph usage.

Also, for gear, should I be stacking power? Focus on might? Focus on crit?Water gives alot of extra HP but I really don't like having zero extra toughness.

Stack Power and Precision. Toughness is not as important in PVE as in pvp, but it means you need to learn to move like crazy. Remember VB, and Cone of Cold (your burst) are 600 range.

The funniest thing is i think Dagger/Focus might be your best Water DPS build. Scepter/Focus is pretty strong too, but you cant' stack as fast as you can with VB.